The wild things are pretty close to home in Kane County

A young girl pulled on her mother's sleeve, saying, "Look, isn't he the cutest thing?"

It's a fairly common comment for a youngster to make - in a pet store. But this "cutest thing" was an animal most suburbanites fear.

It was "Yodi," a full-grown coyote and permanent resident in one of the outdoor pens at the Fox Valley Wildlife Center in the Elburn Forest Preserve.

"Yodi was found with a brother and sister under an old deck of a home in Aurora when the homeowners had it removed to build a new deck," said Andrea Krueger of the wildlife center. "Animal control brought him here and he had an injured leg, but over time he wanted to associate more with people than with the wild.

"His brother and sister stayed wild and were released, but Yodi never learned to live like that, and he's become a permanent resident here," Krueger said. "We will use him for our educational sessions in hopes of teaching people how to be able to coexist with coyotes."

Krueger, her husband Dan, and several other volunteers told plenty of stories during the center's annual open house Sunday about animals that will never leave the center and those being rehabilitated for release.

Volunteers were expecting as many as 700 visitors at the center, which has been caring for orphaned or injured animals as a state and federally licensed facility since 2001.

While visitors could help the cause of the center by purchasing baked goods during the open house, the event served as an educational day rather than a fundraiser, Krueger said.

The center, which can care for as many as 500 animals at one time, has already cared for more than 1,200 birds this year because of the heavy spring and summer storms.

Volunteer Donna Kaszynski was showing off a female raccoon named "Summer" who has been at the center for nearly eight years after being found hovering around its dead mother after it had been hit by a car.

"Summer is blind and paralyzed in the hind legs, so she can never go back into the wild, and has always been our baby," Kaszynski said. "But it's been a heavy breeding season for raccoons this year, and we released about 29 back into the wild last Sunday, and we have 29 more yet to release."

Another center resident who is likely to never leave is a Canada goose named "Lucy," who came in injured nearly a year ago but keeps returning to the center after being released and enjoys being around people.

Amanda Mirabella, a veterinary student at University of Illinois who has worked at the center for five years, led visitors through the hospital portion of the center.

"When we get orphaned animals, we keep them for about four months, or about the same time they would be with their mothers, before we release them," Mirabella explained.

Because of licensing regulations, open house visitors were not allowed to see animals undergoing care or still being rehabilitated.

Mirabella said the center has had some rare patients - two baby flying squirrels; a muskrat that was starving because its injured foot couldn't allow it to hunt for food; and a cormorant bird that either drank bad water or ate a poison fish.

One bird getting plenty of attention by visitors snapping photos was "Happy Jack," an eagle owl from Russia, and the largest of the owl species, being shown by educators with the International Heritage Conservancy.

Donations can be sent to Fox Valley Wildlife Center, P.O. Box 385, Elburn, IL 60119, or made through foxvalleywildlife.org.